Abstract

Since the end of the 1980:s when OECD published the Brundtland report, in which the concept of sustainable development as a critical global issue was introduced, the role of education for global survival has been frequently discussed and explored, by politicians as well as researchers. In school curricula and educational practice, efforts have been made to include material and issues related to, for example, climate changes and nature resources in teaching and learning. Surprisingly little attention has however been paid to the question of the way (and on what premises) early childhood education might (and should) be involved. In this article we discuss some aspects of early childhood education with a bearing on its role in education for sustainable development. The fact that early childhood education belongs to the larger educational system means that global political and economical issues are involved when planning and conducting education for sustainability in pre-school as much as in the rest of the educational system. Recent changes in Swedish educational policy, characteristic traits in pre-school pedagogy and the pre-school child as learner of sustainability are commented upon and discussed.

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